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Stacy
Brooks filed this report to alt.religion.scientology.
February
1, 2000
This morning
Mark Bunker went with German film maker Peter Reichelt and Hans
Michael Kassel, director of documentary film for the German TV station
ARD, to Gottfried Helmwein's house on Palm Bluffs Road, about a
mile and a half north of 33 N. Ft. Harrison. Gottfried is a Scientology
artist in Germany who has apparently been denying he is a Scientologist,
and Peter and Hans Michael were here gathering documentary footage
to prove he is an active Scientologist.
Peter asked
Mark to go with them to Gottfried's house so Mark could video them
walking up to the door of the house and knocking on the door. They
had consulted with Wayne Shuler, the Clearwater Police Public Affairs
Officer, about what they could and could not legally do, and they
followed his direction to the letter.
As Mark was
videotaping, a man ran out of Gottfried's house and assaulted Mark
with a hammer. He hit Mark's camera twice but luckily did not hurt
Mark, although Mark was extremely frightened and shaken when this
man ran at him and struck him with a dangerous weapon. Fortunately
Mark was able to get the assault on videotape and it will be available
on Xenu-TV in about an hour.
The man then
went back into the front door of Gottfried's house, and soon after
that two police officers arrived. One of them, Officer Holsombach,
works for the Church of Scientology at the white lines on Watterson
Avenue as a paid gun to harass the staff of the Lisa McPherson Trust
in his off hours. Mark spoke to the other one, Officer Kelly, and
told him that a man had just assaulted him with a hammer and asked
the officer if he wanted to see it on videotape. But Officer Kelly
ignored what Mark was telling him. Instead, he asked Mark if he
had informed the man that he was audiotaping him. Taken aback by
the question, Mark replied that he had not. Then Officer Kelly told
Mark that he was going to arrest him for audiotaping the hammer-wielding
man without his knowledge!
At that point
Mark called me and told me he was about to be arrested. I jumped
in my car and went down to Gottfried's house. When I got there I
saw two police cars and Mark, Peter and Hans Michael with the two
police officers. There was also another elderly man that I didn't
know. He turned out to be a groundskeeper for the Helmvein property.
I approached
Mark, but Officer Kelly told me to stay away. He was extremely unpleasant
and I was afraid he really was going to arrest Mark. He was writing
a report, and I saw that his hand was shaking uncontrollably. He
was obviously extremely distraught.
Peter was trying
to talk to Officer Kelly but I could see that it was just getting
him more and more aggravated and upset, so I told Peter to be quiet
and let this police officer calm down, otherwise Mark was going
to be arrested. The atmosphere was very highly charged and I was
very worried about how Mark was going to be treated by these officers.
They were obviously biased against Mark because they were doing
nothing to apprehend the man who had assaulted Mark. Officer Kelly
told Mark he knew he was part of LMT, and he asked the two Germans
if they were also part of LMT.
Fortunately
within a few minutes Sergeant John Zegzdryn arrived on the scene.
I have had dealings with Sergeant Zegzdryn before and know that
he is a fair, unbiased police officer. I was greatly relieved when
he arrived.
Officer Kelly
conferred with Sergeant Zedzdryn and then beckoned for Mark, Peter
and Hans Michael to go across the street to talk to him. I started
to cross with them but Officer Kelly rudely ordered me to stay away.
I stopped but was still able to hear what he was saying to them.
He told them that he could arrest them right then and there and
that they better not go anywhere near the particular property again
or he would arrest them. He then had the groundskeeper officially
notify them that they were trespassing and that they were not wanted
there.
As Officer
Kelly was telling them that they could be arrested, he was addressing
his comments particularly to Mark. When the groundskeeper gave them
the official warning, he wasn't concerned about Mark at all and
directed his statement to the two Germans who had actually walked
up to the door of the house, while Mark had stayed on the public
sidewalk. But Officer Kelly was pointedly directing his communication
to Mark.
Then Officer
Kelly released them and told them they were free to go.
This was apparently
all that was going to be done until Mark protested that nothing
had been done about the man who had assaulted him with the hammer.
Then Sergeant
Zegzdryn called Officer Kelly across the street again and he then
approached Mark to see if he wanted to file a complaint about the
man with the hammer. Sergeant Zegzdryn was the first one who was
willing to watch the videotape of the assault. Officer Kelly hadn't
even been interested in looking at it. Mark said absolutely yes,
he wanted the man arrested. The officers then spent time taking
reports from everyone who had been there, and Mark repeated several
times that he wanted the man arrested. But the police officers then
told us that they were not going to arrest the man, that they were
going to refer the matter to the state attorney's office.
We argued with
the sergeant about this at length, but in the end that was his decision.
He did allow Mark to make a copy of the videotape though. Sergeant
Zegzdryn brought the original videotape to our office and witnessed
Mark making a copy of the part of the tape that showed the assault.
Jesse and I were also witnesses, because Sergeant Zegzdryn was concerned
that there could be questions about whether the tape had been altered.
But I called Denis deVlaming, our criminal attorney, and he said
to have the sergeant witness the dubbing and that would suffice.
So that is what we did.
Bob has already
spoken to Doug Crowe in the state attorney's office and made it
clear that we expect aggravated assault charges against this man.
I've just found
out that the man who assaulted Mark with the hammer is named Richard
Bernard.
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